^ 355 
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opy 1 



Commontoealtf) of l^ennsipltjania 



i^igtorical Ji^otes; on PennsipltJania's! 

Public Retool ^psitem : Witfi 

(^^uggesitionsi as! to 

neetretr cljangesi 




Br NATHAN C. SCHAEFFER 

State Supt. of Public Instruction 



.Ootf — 'Cftifi artitU toaS orig[tnaU)> prepareb for anb printcb in tfte 

Pflilabelpljia public TLebgerg ^ebrntp (ifti) 

Stninbersarp (Ifbitioii 



It^arriebucs: 

ATTOHtNBAUGH, PRINTER TO THE SI 



.N'SYLVANI.A 



Commontpealtf) of Penngplbania 

#igtorical ^ott^ on Pennsplljania's; 

Public <^cf)ool^j>sitem : Witf^ 

^ugsesitiong as to 

neetetr cijangesi 



Br NATHAN C. SCHAEFFER 

State Supt. of Public Instruction 



^otc — Cfjis article toaS originaUp prepartb for anb priiiteb in tfje 

Pfjilabelpfjia Public Hcbger'S ^ebcntpfiftfj 

ainnit)crsar|» OJbition 



Sfarrisburg: 

C. E. AUCHINBAUGH, PRINTER TO THE STATE OP PENNSYLVANIA 

1910 



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NOV 23 1910 



(2) 



l^isitorical Ji^otes; on Pennsiplbania's; Public Retool 

^V^ttm : With J^ugsegtionsi a^ to 

neebetr Cl)anses; 



liecenrly ;i Avriter reproseiitinj;- llie Cai'iiej»ip Pension Fonndatioii 
cast the following- as})ersion n])on oni- school system: "Pennsylvania 
has never come into a conce])1iou of edncatiou fi-om the standpoint 
of the whole ]ieo})le; as a consequence, its public school system is 
still in a rndiineniai-y state.*' 

Fortnnately not all the people of New England are in such dense 
ignoi-ance of what has been achieved educationally in the State of 
li'ennsylvania. In the National Magazine for August, A. E. Winship, 
the well-known editor of the National Journal of Education, and who, 
though living in New England, has risen above the Bostonian view 
of the universe, calls attention by Avay of reply to a series of facts 
which should be better known to many who live in the Keystone State. 
This P>ostou editor says: 

"Evidently the Pension Foundation does not know that Pennsyl- 
vania led the world, led Massachusetts even, in the great i)ublic school 
awakening of the 3()s ; that before Horace Mann gave Massachusetts 
its great public school leadershij), Governor Wolf, of Pennsylvania, 
wrote the greatest of educational messages and Thaddeus Stevens, at 
Harrisburg, made a greater educational speech for the public schools 
than ever was made, even by Horace Mann. 

''This Pension Foundation seems not to know that Pennsylvania's 
poorest paid country school teachers get much better salaries than 
thousands of teachers in New England; that the scholarship stand- 
ards and professional training in several of the State normal schools 
of Pennsylvania are fully equal to the best in Massachusetts, and that 
in the poorest they are higher than in any one of eight normal 
schools in New England ; that normal school principals in Pennsylva- 
nia get GO per cent, higher salaries than in Massachusetts; that the 
State of Pennsj'lvania gives more money to her common schools than 
all of the New England States combined ; that politics has played no 
part in State school administration for 10 years. But why empha- 
size further this stupendous ignorance of the Pension Foundation re- 
garding the public schools of Pennsylvania, when the ignorance is not 
confined to that State." 

(3) 



CREDIT NOT DUE TO HORACE MANN. 

The educational awakening in our State did not come about, as 
many have su]>i>osed, through the influence of Horace Mann. It 
antedates his splendid work in Massachusetts. The establishment 
of a system of common schools was advocated in the messages of Gov- 
ernor Rchulze and Governor AVolf. The latter staked his re-election 
upon his advocacy of schools free to all, and although he was defeated 
when it came to his re-election in 1834, the school law which, through 
his efforts, has been enacted with but a single dissenting voice in the 
Assembly, or lower house, was saved from repeal through (he elo- 
quence of Thaddeus Stevens. The two were bitter political enemies, 
and yet they buried their ditferences and worked together to give the 
State a school system which has ^ow been in operation for 75 years. 
Stevens declared that he would follow the leader whose "banner 
streamed in light," and Governor Wolf, after the vote was taken, sent 
for Stevens and with tears of gratitude rolling down his cheeks 
thanked his political opponent for what he had done to give the chil- 
dren of the State a system of common schools. 

The system was born on our own soil and grew up in response to 
our own needs. The original act was drawn by Judge Samuel Breck, 
whose father moved from Boston to Philadelphia to escape the higher 
rate of taxation in the former city. The boy was sent to France to 
be educated. There he joined the Catholic Church, and without 
doubt carried through life the educational enthusiasm which he re- 
ceived while attending the College of Soreze, in Lower Languedoc. 

Judge Breck entered politics, and had himself elected to the State 
Senate for the sole purpose of giving the State a system of general 
education. Having accomplished this purpose, he retired from pub- 
lic life and could not be induced to run for office again. 

The original act was cumbersome and difficult to administer. Dr. 
George Smith, a Senator from Delaware County, conceived the idea 
of making the township the unit of school administration, and it was 
in 1836, the year the Public Ledger was born, that this change was 
made in the original school law. Here again writers on education 
are prone to show their ignorance of our educational history. The 
author of "The American Eural School" says: 

"Massachusetts, which was the first to legalize the district unit, 
was likewise the first to abolish it. This happened in 1882. New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio and Penn- 
sylvania very soon followed suit, and likewise changed to the town- 



ship system. More than 20 other States have laws permitting town- 
ship organization for school purposes, although they have as yet not 
exercised this permission to any extent." 

TOWNSHIP SYSTEM FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS. 

As a matter of fact, Pennsylvania has had the township system, not 
since 1882, but for more than 70 years. Since 1836 every township, 
borough and city has been a school district, and the sub-district sys- 
tem never prevailed except in a comparatively small number of dis- 
tricts called independent districts. The creation of these in- 
dependent districts is now generally admitted to have beea 
a mistake. It interferes witli the development of a rational sys- 
tem of high schools, and imposes unnecessary taxation upon the 
owners of the less valuable farms. With the exception of these inde- 
pendent districts, Pennsylvania has escaped the evils of the district 
(often called sub-district) system, under which the schoolhouse with 
the community sending to it is the unit of school administration. 
Other states are still struggling to escape these evils, and in some in- 
stances have found it impossible to secure what the wisdom of Sena- 
tor Smith gave us in the 30s. 

And yet, the Carnegie Foundation has the temerity to assert thai 
Pennsylvania has never come into a conception of education from the 
standpoint of the whole people. The only ground for such an asser- 
tion is the fact that Philadelphia was exempted from the jurisdiction 
of the State Superintendent and from other acts of Assembly, and 
this was due to previous legislation, which was believed to be superior 
to the common school law, and which may have given rise to the 
taunt that Philadelphians believe themselves to be made of "finer 
dust" than are the other people of the Commonwealth. 

In the days of Andrew Jackson the surplus in the national treas- 
ury was distributed among the states. Pennsylvania's share 
amounted to more than half a million dollars. Through the influence 
of Governor Eitner tliis money Avas set ai)art for school purposes, and 
Avas mostly used in the erection of school houses. Governor Eitner 
was a native of Pike township, Berks county, and he certainly did not 
get his enthusiasm for school from New England. When he Avas a 
candidate for Governor, an editor, thinking he Avould further Mr. Eit- 
ner's chances of election, announced that Mr. Eitner was opposed to 
the common school system, Avhereupon the latter visited the editor's 
f^anctum and remained until the editor had penned a correction of 
this misstatement. He Avas not Avilling to gain votes upon the pre- 
tense that he was opposed to free schools. 



COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT MARKED IMPORTANT EPOCH. 

The next (•ri><is caiue wlieu llie olTice of Coimly SuiKMiiileiideut was 
eieated. In the earlier days the to\vnshii)s were required to levy 
twice as much tax as the amount received from the State appropria- 
tion. The directors would take oath that this levy had been made ac- 
cording- to law, Avlie;'eu])(m, as socm as the oath was filed, the Secre- 
t;'.ry of the Commonwealth, who at that time was ex officio Super- 
intendent of Common Schools, would send out the warrant for the 
State money, and in some instances as soon as this money was paid 
the duplicate was recalled from the tax collector jmd not a cent of 
local tax for school puri)0ses was collected. 

It is known tliat in one township of Armstrcmc: county the State 
school money Avas spent upon the public roads. They must have had 
aj)()stles of good roads at that time. Of course, this happened, as 
fdi-mer (lovernor Stone used to say. "in the good old days when every- 
body was honest." 

To prevent the misuse of public money in this waj' the ])olicy was 
adopted of paying tlie school ai)i)ropriation at the end of the year 
foi which it was made, and the office of County Superintendent was 
created in order that a representative of the school department might 
visit the schools and see that they were kept in operation according to 
law. The superintendent affixes his approval to all the reports which 
the directors are required to make, and it now seldom happens that 
the school appropriation must be withheld from a district because 
the directors have knoAvingly violated any of our school laws. 

The creation of so many new offices led to violent opposition to Gov- 
ernor Bigler and contributed to his defeat at the next election. For- 
lunately his successor, Governor Pollock, was a firm friend of efficient 
schools. Special legislation was proposed and passed through the 
House and the Senate abolishing the office in four counties. State 
Superintendent Hickok was sent for w'hen the bill reached the Gov- 
ernor. He was asked to write out the reasons for a veto. The writ- 
i)ig of the veto message was assigned to Andrew Gregg Curtin, then 
Secretary of the Commonwealth. Wlien it appeared it did not con- 
tain one of Mr. ITickok's ai'guments. It stigmatized the bill as special 
logislatiim of the worst sort, and was triumphantly sustained in the 
legislative branch in which the bill had originated. At 3?eading a 
Uiass meeting was held, at Avhich both ^Mr. Hickok and Governor Pol- 
lock made s]»eec]ies committing themselves to llie conliuuance of the 
new ofTice. On Iheir i-etnrn to linrrisburg the Governor was told that 



Mr, Hickok would ruin his adniiuistralion. Laying his finger be- 
tween his eyes, as if to distinguish right I'roni wrong, tlie (Tovernor de- 
clared that he would allow every part of his administration to go 
down in failure rather than see the schools sufPer harm from ill-ad- 
vised legislation. A Governor whose religious scruples prevented 
him from attending the inauguration ball given in his honor had no 
hesitation in taking a firm stand for efficient schools. 

In some states the office of County Superintendent was created 
and again abolished. Pennsylvania never took a backward step of 
that sort. Nor did her Legislature ever commit the mistake of pro- 
viding for the election of superintendents by popular vote. Wher- 
ever this plan has been tried the office has fallen into the hands of 
politicians. Sometimes men have been selected by vote of the peo- 
ple who could not pronounce a column of words Avithout a mistake. 
In states afflicted with officials of that sort there always springs up 
a demand for examinations conducted from the State capital; and 
the State Superintendent sometimes deteriorates into a mere reader 
of examination papers. Let any one compare the questions prejiared 
by the average County Superintendent of Pennsylvania with the tests 
prepared by State boards of education, and he will rejoice over the 
variety of the questions as well as over the fact that the superinten- 
dency has never been a political office in the Kej'stone State. 

POLITICS AND THE SCHOOL DON'T MIX. 

Politics and the schools do not mix. Wherever the two are joined 
together the child loses. That superintendents hold office regard- 
less of the mutations of iDolitics speaks well for those who planned 
the supervision of our schools. The school population has out- 
grown the possibilities of efficient supervision in the larger counties, 
and if the legislators of 1911 shall prove as wise as those of 1854 they 
Mill i)rovide for closer supervision by giving assistants to the super- 
intendents, at least in all the. larger counties, if not in most of the 
cities and counties. 

The history of tlie movement for the establishment of State Nor- 
mal Schools in Pennsylvania is unique. Governor after Governor 
and Superintendent after Superintendent urged the establishment of 
special schools for the training of teachers. The colleges had been 
tried and were found wanting, so far as the preparation of teachers 
for the common schools was concerned. Finally Mr. Benjamin Ban- 
non, of Pottsville, suggested that the schools for the training of 
teachers might be established as private schools, and that the grad- 
uates might be examined and certificated to teach bv State authori- 



8 

ties. To Governor Tollock tlie idea seemed feasible. Thomas H. 
Burrows was asked to draft an act, which he did on a Sunda3\ His 
son relates how on a Sunday evening he was called out of bed to 
carr}^ the draft of the act to the postoffice. It was sent to State 
Superintendent Hickok with this message: ''If you get this enacted 
into law it will be your best winter's work, as it has been ray best 
Sunday's work for many a year.'' In a letter now in possessicm of 
the writer Mr. Hickok describes how the act was passed. 

In the closing days of the session of 1857 (according to Mr. 
Hickok), he and Mr. Curtin went to the House, feeling that if noth- 
ing adverse happened the bill might become a law, although Henry D. 
Foster, the leader of the opposite party, which had a majority, was 
known to be against the measure. Mr. Curtin, who was the prince 
of good story tellers, called Mr. Foster to one side and entertained 
him whilst Mr. Hickok did work on the floor. The reading clerk, 
Lncle Jake Ziegler, was in the secret, and the bill passed while Mr. 
Curtin held Mr. Foster spellbound by anecdotes. 

Ultimately tlie efliciency of a school system depends upon the teach- 
ers who are employed. During the Civil War the young men went to 
the army and the schools began to pass rapidly into the hands of 
women teachers. Economic reasons have emphasized this tendency. 
As a consequence the State normal schools, which were originally at- 
tended by more young men than young women, are rapidly becoming 
ladies' seminaries, in the sense that they are attended only by young 
women. The young men have not deserted the State normal schools 
entirely, as has happened in Massachusetts and other States, but the 
strong tendency on the part of young men to quit the schools for 
the sake of entering more lucrative vocations is viewed with alarm by 
those who believe that there is a time in Ihe life of every boy and 
every girl when he or she should come at school under the influence 
of a masculine mind. 

HIGHER SALARIES CAN CHECK THE TENDENCY. 

Higher salaries can alone check this tendency. A constant cliange 
in women teachers must be expected, because attractive and well 
educated young women will be asked to exchange the school room 
lor the queenship of a home. The State can well afl'ord to pay for 
the tuition of the women who ultimately help to make homes for the 
next generation. The nation needs good mothers (piite as much as 
it needs good teachers. Perhaps we should be very thankful that 
pupils are developing into teachers and that the teachers are con- 
stantly becoming patr<ms, thus keeping the school and the home in 
the closest possible syni]»n1hy and co-operation. 



9 

The last 20 years have witnessed much legislation never dreamed 
of by our forefathers in their most sanguine moments. Provision 
has been made for free text books and supplies, for the establishment 
of township high schools, for the issue of employment certificates by 
the school authorities, for the enforcement of compulsory attendance 
at school, and for the recognition of college diplomas in the issue of 
life licenses to successful teachers. 

A gentleman whose business takes him over the entire State re- 
cently declared that the two greatest things w^hich had been done in 
recent years for the education of our children were the lengthening 
of the school term and the fixing of a minimum salary for teachers. 
He further expressed the conviction that inasmuch as the minimum 
term had been gradually lengthened from four to five months, then 
fiom five to six months, and later fro7n six to seven months, another 
forward step should be taken by fixing the minimum term at eight 
months. In connection with the higher minimum salary paid to 
teachers of skill and scholarship this lengthening of the term would 
enable the most remote rural districts to secure the services of grad- 
uates from our State normal schools. The average school term is 
now nearly eight and a half months, but this is due to the longer 
terms of school in the cities, boroughs and suburban sections of the 
State. The hope of the granger that the boys can be kept on the 
farm will never be realized so long as the teaching of agriculture is 
made impossible by short terms and poorly-trained teachers. Fami- 
lies will move into sections Avhere the children can enjoy satisfactory 
school facilities. 

LOW ASSESSMENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE. 

The chief reason why certain rural districts cannot get enough 
money to have good schools is found in the low assessment of real 
estate. At this point the directors are helpless against the assessors. 
The law requires property to be assessed at its full value, and this is 
the case in counties like Chester, where the millage is very low. 
Wherever the millage is very high one may generally expect that the 
assessor has not weighed very seriously his oath to assess property 
according to law. The inequalities in the assessments about which 
one hears so much whenever taxation for municipal and school pur- 
poses is discussed should not be blamed upon those who administer 
our school system. The trouble lies elsewhere, and the people still 
look for a leaaer who shall frame a law calculated to make every citi- 
zen and every corporation pay a just share of tax for the support of 



10 

the (lOVciiiiiK'iil iiiid the cducntioii of llie people. In loo iiiauy minds 
refonii iiie;iiis !<'<>islali(»ii llial will make !lie oilier fellow ]»ay the 
taxes. 

That Pennsjivania has awakened to the comeiilion of edncalion 
fi-om llie standpoint of the wliole peo]>le is evident from the annnal 
sehool appro])riations. In the hist two decades remarkahle j»ro- 
••ress lias been made in liberal approi)riations to the publie schools. 
J^rom is:»4 to 1890 the total paid out of the iState Treasury for com- 
mon schools reached the ma<»:niticent sum of $28,000,000, but this 
amount pales into insigniticance Avhen compared Avith the -fl^O,- 
000,000 appropriated for school purposes since that date. And yet 
p-ersons are often misled in making comparisons. New Jersey, with 
a school i)o]>ulation eijual to one-third of ours, has set apart tixed rev- 
enues for elementary and high schools amounting to about |7,000,000 
annually, while her appropriations at each legislative sessicm seem 
small in comparison with ours. After all has been said in praise of 
our liberality, we must nt>t hide from our eyes the need of more 
money if the schools are to solve the many problems . which are 
shied at the teachers by the advocates of progress and reform. To 
expect the schools without more money to solve all the problems 
in agricultural, industrial and commercial education now claiming 
public attention, is to commit over again the sin of I'haraoh, who 
expected the children of Israel to make bricks without straw. AVe 
need better teaching in the lower schools, better facilities in our 
high schools and an etiuipment that Avill enable the pupils to study 
the things which lie at the foundation of modern civilization. 

WHERE THE MONEY MUST COME FROM. 

Good schools cost mone.y, and the money must come partly from 
the State and partly froiu local taxation. 

Our school system is based upon popular government. Laws must 
be enacted to protect the children against the parsimony and the 
short-sightedness of local school boards. The schools can never be 
made better than the people want them to be, nor will the schools 
be i)ermitted to lag far behind the demands of public opinion. Those 
who would take away all power from the local boards and vest it in 
some central authority like a State Board of Education, thereby un- 
consciously admit that in their thinking popular government has 
proved a failure. No surer method of destroying popular interest 
in the schools can be devised than that which takes the control from 
the people and vests in them only the privilege of pacing the taxes. 



11 

The Avt>rld moves and the schools are apt lo be too conservative. 
Courses of study uiust be modified and improved so as to ada])t tlu^m 
to the changing needs of a progressive civilization. In arithmetic, 
for instance, it is useless to waste the time and brain power of 
children upon problems which never occur in practical life, or wliich 
were needed in business transactions now antiquated by several hun- 
dred years. It is admitted that for purposes of mental discipline, 
algebra and geometry are far more valuable than number work. A 
revolution is taking place not merely in the teaching of arithmetic, 
but also in the methods of teaching language, history and the 
sciences. In medicine the practitioner who has not kept in touch 
with modern discoveries ever since he took his degTee, is no longer 
fit to practice medicine. In education progress has been equally 
marked. Man}' a teacher whose work at one time elicited praise, 
finds himself out of touch with what is now demanded in the public 
schools, simply because he has failed to keep abreast of the times. 

There was a time when any one could step from tlie gutter into a 
law school. All this has been changed, and the study of law now re- 
quires at least a high school training. There was a time when the 
young man who could not get a teacher's certificate went to the medi- 
cal college, and at the end of two courses of lectures retui-ned home 
with a diploma authorizing him to practice medicine. Today our 
law requires a preliminary education covering four years of high 
school work, or its equivalent, and a subseiiuent course of four years 
of professional study before the graduate of the medical school can 
be admitted to the State examination for license. There are at least 
twenty-five learned vocations, the doors to which are closed to the 
youth who quits school without getting the equivalent of a high 
school education. 

ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION WILL SOON BE NEEDED. 

The time is undoubtedly at hand when our school system needs ad- 
ditional legislation. It would be f'olh^ to cast aside provisions and 
regulations which were framed in answer to our own needs, simply 
because these difler from similar laws in other states. 

On the other hand, it would be the acme of stupidity to assume 
that our system has reached perfection, and that new legislation is 
unnecessary because the people can have as good schools as they are 
willing to pay for. In Pennsylvania, as under the Old Testament 
dispensation, the law has constantly served as a schoolmaster in the 
creation of public sentiment and in the im])rovement of the sdiools. 



12 

But in all the legislation that may be attempted, the interests of 
the children should be made the first consideration. Surely no man 
in his senses would wish to enact a school code so filled with defects 
and contradictions as to give the rising generation educational facili- 
ties inferior to those which our school system now otters in every sec- 
tion of the Comm<mwealth. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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